Red Bull were again the class of the field today in qualifying for the Chinese Grand Prix, and somewhat predictably it was Verstappen who took his fifth consecutive pole position of the season. With Perez second, the closest competitor was Fernando Alonso who will start the Grand Prix from third place.
Not a bad race today. Far too long under the Safety Car however.
Norris was fast today, would have been a good scrap with him and Checo had Checo not lost out under the Safety Car/VSC. Hey-ho, thats racing.
Ferrari seemed to lack a lot of pace today, clearly behind McLaren this weekend in terms of car pace.
Max doing Max things and being comfortably a second a lap faster than anyone else, even in cruise mode.
Checo driving that RB20 at about 95% of its potential, he's getting good points, but he should be making much more than what he's doing. Couldnt close the gap to Norris really on the same tyres/tyre age.
AMR screwed alonso over by going onto the soft with 25laps to go - stupid move. Medium would have been MUCH better and probably would have challenged for P4/5.
Stroll being Stroll and wiping people out, him and Sargeant are up to F1 standards at all. But Stroll probably protected by Daddy in terms of his seat - bit decision if Stroll Snr wants the team to do better.
Shouldn't have "experimented" and changed the set-up then after the sprint. Russell's showing that the car can do a lot more.
Nope. You are wrong. That car CANNOT do a lot more. Look where Russell would finish in the natural order: Ninth!! Hew would be behind the redbulls, the ferrarris, the Mclarens, the Astons. Chump change really. It's a disgrace. No point in fighting for that.
Lewis is actually wiser than many think and should be given credit for playing the long game. All Russell is focusing on is beating Lewis but Lewis is focusing on getting the car into decent shape before seasons end. Might as well take every single race to experiment to help the team "unlock" the car going into the summer break.
I understand the urge to cope, but don't make things up. Russell was in a battle with Alonso and Piastri for P6 the entire race, he was a legit P7 right behind Alonso when the SC hit. He was much faster than Lewis in the laptimes.
This is the third year we've heard the "experiments" excuse, it's at a point where it has lost all credibility. Not only because it's such a convenient thing to always bring up after a bad performance, but also because it has led to no relative improvement over 3 years. Maybe Ham should reconsider his methodology, but I think not, it's just too convenient to blame these "experiments".
Did you not see when Russell fell back from Sainz and Alonso and could barely pull away from a sick McLaren? Under normal circumstances the car is the fifth best. Same crap as in 2010 to 2012 when Nico and MSC were fighting to finish in the top 6. No one cares about that, no one even remembers where Merc finished in those years and why should they?
This year is a write off and means nothing unless they can get the car into a state where it can finish 2nd in the championship.
Nope. You are wrong. That car CANNOT do a lot more. Look where Russell would finish in the natural order: Ninth!! Hew would be behind the redbulls, the ferrarris, the Mclarens, the Astons. Chump change really. It's a disgrace. No point in fighting for that.
Lewis is actually wiser than many think and should be given credit for playing the long game. All Russell is focusing on is beating Lewis but Lewis is focusing on getting the car into decent shape before seasons end. Might as well take every single race to experiment to help the team "unlock" the car going into the summer break.
I understand the urge to cope, but don't make things up. Russell was in a battle with Alonso and Piastri for P6 the entire race, he was a legit P7 right behind Alonso when the SC hit. He was much faster than Lewis in the laptimes.
This is the third year we've heard the "experiments" excuse, it's at a point where it has lost all credibility. Not only because it's such a convenient thing to always bring up after a bad performance, but also because it has led to no relative improvement over 3 years. Maybe Ham should reconsider his methodology, but I think not, it's just too convenient to blame these "experiments".
Did you not see when Russell fell back from Sainz and Alonso and could barely pull away from a sick McLaren? Under normal circumstances the car is the fifth best. Same crap as in 2010 to 2012 when Nico and MSC were fighting to finish in the top 6. No one cares about that, no one even remembers where Merc finished in those years and why should they?
This year is a write off and means nothing unless they can get the car into a state where it can finish 2nd in the championship.
Sainz finished P5 in a much faster Ferrari, that was never Russell's race. He was battling with Piastri and Alonso for P6-P8, and beat both of them to P6.
Could barely pull away from a sick McLaren? What a bold-faced lie. He pulled 18 seconds on Piastri in less than half the race after the SC. The same hobbling Piastri that Hamilton tried to pass at the end and couldn't even get within DRS. Russell was clearly the superior driver here today, much faster.
I understand the urge to cope, but don't make things up. Russell was in a battle with Alonso and Piastri for P6 the entire race, he was a legit P7 right behind Alonso when the SC hit. He was much faster than Lewis in the laptimes.
This is the third year we've heard the "experiments" excuse, it's at a point where it has lost all credibility. Not only because it's such a convenient thing to always bring up after a bad performance, but also because it has led to no relative improvement over 3 years. Maybe Ham should reconsider his methodology, but I think not, it's just too convenient to blame these "experiments".
Did you not see when Russell fell back from Sainz and Alonso and could barely pull away from a sick McLaren? Under normal circumstances the car is the fifth best. Same crap as in 2010 to 2012 when Nico and MSC were fighting to finish in the top 6. No one cares about that, no one even remembers where Merc finished in those years and why should they?
This year is a write off and means nothing unless they can get the car into a state where it can finish 2nd in the championship.
Sainz finished P5 in a much faster Ferrari, that was never Russell's race. He was battling with Piastri and Alonso for P6-P8, and beat both of them to P6.
Could barely pull away from a sick McLaren? What a bold-faced lie. He pulled 18 seconds on Piastri in less than half the race after the SC. The same hobbling Piastri that Hamilton tried to pass at the end and couldn't even get within DRS. Russell was clearly the superior driver here today, much faster.
Lovely. Fighting for P6 and P8! So excited!
And why do you care about this anyway? Not even Mercedes fans care lol.
Best race of this season so far. Lots of action, aided by the two cautions. Impressive drive from Fernando. Norris was good as well. Normal sunday drive for Max, Sainz with a bad race, the usual suspects in Stroll and Magnussen doing their own things.
Miami might be a bit more fun but Red Bull have too much margin.
Did someone notice the rear camera of Max V, the rear axle was moving almost steering itself (its like DAS but for the rear axle?
Yes. I did. During the SC while he was putting heat in to the tyres.
All the rear end was changing...
Anyone knowledgeable?
There's a lot of image distortion in that clip (fixed and close broad focus requirements often give significant barrel changes to image from lens geometry) that seem to exaggerated the real change that's part of any suspension travel.
Looks just like chassis "roll" and camber shift that's normal for most chassis when "rocking" it like that.